Why are the Northern Right whales going extinct and what can we do to save them?

It all began around the 11th century, when some sailors were whaling and they recently caught a northern right whale. These whales weren’t named yet, and the sailors found lots of oil & blubber, which made the whale very valuable. Then the sailors named it a northern right whale, because it was the “right” whale to kill and, well, whale.

The Northern Atlantic Right whale is very easy to catch because it is not afraid of ships, & it will let boats just come up & start attacking it. It is very slow, averages about 8 Km an hour. This just makes them even easier to catch. Back then, it was okay to kill those whales because they weren’t endangered. Now, there is only 500 to one thousand left. It is now the rarest of all whales, and it is also one of the rarest animals on the planet.

A couple of it’s most serious threats are collisions with ships, and getting tangled in our fishing nets. Even though we were doing a lot of damage to these poor creatures, we aren’t the only ones. We only cause 43 percent of these whales deaths. A protection program for the whales was started in the 1930’s. Now, there isn’t very many whales left, even with the protection program still running. Since the program started, their numbers haven’t grown very much at all. It looks like a very bad situation for these whales. Right now, there are many groups looking towards helping this whale.

One of the groups, the Defenders Of Wildlife, is really trying to help this whale. “Defenders of Wildlife has long led the conservation community’s efforts to protect right whales from ship strikes. In 2008, we succeeded in prompting the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to publish the first-ever speed limits for large ships to protect right whales. We are now working to ensure that those speed limits continue to protect right whales, including in renewable energy development and other significant developments along the East Coast.” the defenders of wildlife say.

That was the history of the whales, and now what can we do for them?

We can keep an eye out for these whales, Stop our boats when we get near them, and pull up our fishing nets if they get close to them. These are just a few of the small ways that we can help.

A couple of the big ways are: start an awareness program to raise awareness that these whales are about to go extinct; If you are allowed to, put some floating signs out on the water to remind the boaters that they should be careful around these whales if they ever encounter them; or even, if you have enough money, you could even advertise on TV that the whales are going extinct, because a lot of people like to watch TV, and another way to do this would be just rent some bill board advertising space, and use the same ad.

Of course, there is a lot more ways to help these guys that this. If you want, you can even make up your own ways! You don’t have to pay to raise awareness, because there is a lot more ways that just the ways that I listed! Big or small, you can help the whales anyway that you want! So, that concludes my presentation, and, if you want, you can look at my posters that I’ve made!